Revealing the Presence of Infrastructure

Posted: May 6th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

reveal the seams
Captured this week in downtown San Jose, CA.

Will these warning signs preventing interferences disappear in the ubicomp of the future? There is probably a cultural take to it. It is not surprise that seamful design emerged in the UK. Designers have been used to warn about the limits of the infrastructure (i.e. the culturally anchored “mind the gap”) almost to the overdose. In other cultures, designers assume for the best without overloading the interfaces almost to the point of the uselessness. It will probably become important to understanding to find the right balance to notify the seams to the everyday users of the ubicomp invisible infrastructures. Might be a topic to extend to contribute to Julian Bleecker’s ‘Salon’ at Picnic’07.


2 Comments on “Revealing the Presence of Infrastructure”

  1. 1 7.5th Floor » Blog Archive » Revealing the Potential Failures of Infrastructures said at 11:43 am on September 7th, 2007:

    [...] the train of thoughts on Revealing the Presence of Infrastructure, their limits and their potential failures, Vale of Glamorgan (Wales) deployed visual signs warning [...]

  2. 2 7.5th Floor » Blog Archive » Sketching the Street of the Near-Future said at 1:05 pm on February 13th, 2008:

    [...] many aspects of the digital city I have been touching: digital traces, revealing the invisible, seamfulness, and user adoption. Unusually for this type of exercise describing the street of the future, Dan [...]